The Latest: Apple axes Google access to key developer tool

FILE - This March 19, 2018 file photo shows a Google app in Baltimore. Google says Apple has also revoked its access to a key developer tool, preventing its employees from testing new app features on iPhones. Facebook lost access to the same tool Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019, but had it restored Thursday. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

January 31, 2019 - 5:01 PM

NEW YORK - The Latest on Apple's denial of an important tool to Facebook (all times local):

8 p.m.

Google says Apple has also revoked its access to a key developer tool, preventing its employees from testing new app features on iPhones. Facebook lost access to the same tool Wednesday, but had it restored Thursday.

Google appears confident it would quickly regain its access. It says it is working with Apple to fix what it called a temporary disruption to some of its corporate iPhone apps, and said it expected the situation to be resolved soon.

Google declined to say why it lost access to the tool. The action came a day after the company voluntarily withdrew a market-research app called "Screenwise Meter," which Google had distributed to users outside the App Store — although not to teens.

Apple did not reply immediately to a request for comment.

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5:45 p.m.

Facebook says Apple is restoring a key development tool that the iPhone maker disabled Wednesday.

Apple's earlier move followed disclosure of a Facebook program that paid users, including teens, to download a "research" app that could extensively track peoples' app and internet usage.

Apple said Facebook was abusing the tool, known as a developer enterprise certificate, to distribute the app in a way that allowed the social network to sidestep Apple restrictions on data collection.

Restoration of the certificate means Facebook can once distribute internal apps to its employees that help them test software features before users see them.

While Facebook engineers could still write code and work on the iOS apps during the shutoff, their ability to test apps in the field was limited.